SCMP-Renegade trio betrayed the ele

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Subject: SCMP-Renegade trio betrayed the electorate, say democrats 

SCMP-Saturday  May 8  1999
Burma
Renegade trio betrayed the electorate, say democrats

ASSOCIATED PRESS in Rangoon
Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition group renewed its attack on
three renegade members accused of working with the junta in an attempt to
split the party, its executive committee said yesterday.

The three members of the National League for Democracy were among those
elected to parliament in 1990. The junta refused to honour the election, in
which the NLD won a landslide victory, and never allowed the parliament to
convene.

Than Tun, Kyi Win and Tin Tun Maung obtained the signatures of 24 other NLD
lawmakers on a letter calling for Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and other party
leaders to reconsider strategies they said led to conflict with the junta,
including the NLD's attempt to convene the parliament last year.

The politicians who signed the document were in military detention at the
time, diplomats in Rangoon have said.

In a statement directed at the three, the NLD's 10-member central executive
committee said: "You have collaborated with the military intelligence for
your own personal interest and betrayed the electorate by attempting to
destroy the implementation of parliament."

Mr Than Tun was expelled from the party last year after the leadership
accused him of attempting to engineer a split in its ranks.

Frustrated by the Government's refusal to allow parliament to convene or to
open a dialogue with Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders, the party
attempted to convene parliament on its own in September.

The military responded by detaining all elected lawmakers and nearly 1,000
party members. Many have been released but the NLD says about 80 lawmakers
are still being held.

The renegade NLD members called on the party leaders to reconsider their
call to convene parliament and to seek new strategies to initiate a dialogue
with the military. The NLD has put no conditions on a dialogue except that
it must choose its own representatives to negotiate.

Attempts by the junta to negotiate with lower-level party members have been
quashed by the leadership, which insists that Ms Aung San Suu Kyi must
participate.